In the long and glorious reign of Nushírwán (A.D. 531-578), no year, perhaps, was so memorable, or so fraught with conse­quences of deep and unsuspected importance, as the forty-second “The Year of the Elephant.” (A.D. 572-3), called by the Arabs “the Year of the Elephant.” In this year, on the one hand, culmi­nated a long series of events which led to the annexa­tion by Persia of the rich and ancient kingdom of Yaman, an acquisition which might well arouse the enthusiasm and awaken the plaudits of the Persian imperialists of that epoch; while in it, on the other hand, was born in distant Mecca one whose teaching was destined to overthrow the House of Sásán and the religion of Zoroaster, the Prophet Muḥammad. On the night of his birth, according to the legends so dear to pious Muslims, the Palace of the Persian King was shaken by an Prognostications of misfortune to the Sásánian Empire. earthquake, so that fourteen of its battlements fell to the ground; the Sacred Fire, which had burned continuously for a thousand years, was extin­guished; and the Lake of Sáwa suddenly dried up; while the chief priest of the Zoroastrians saw in a dream the West of Persia overrun by Arabian camels and horses from across the Tigris. At these portents Núshírwán was greatly troubled, nor was his trouble dispelled by the oracular answer brought back by his messenger 'Abdu'l-Masíḥ, a Christian Arab of the tribe of Ghassán, from his uncle, the aged Saṭíḥ, who dwelt on the borders of the Syrian desert. This answer, conveyed in the rhyming rajaz regarded by the Arabian sooth­sayers (kahana) as the appropriate vehicle of their oracles, was couched in the following strain:—

“On a camel 'Abdu'l-Masíḥ hastens toward Saṭíḥ, who to the verge of the Tomb is already come. Thee hither doth bring the Oracular utter­ance of Saṭíḥ. command of the Sásánian King because the Palace hath quaked, and the Fire is slaked, and the Chief Priest in his dream hath seen camels fierce and lean, and horse-troops by them led over the Tigris bed through the border marches spread.

“O 'Abdu'l-Masíḥ! When reading shall abound, and the Man of the Staff* be found and the hosts shall seethe in the Vale of Samáwa,* and dried up shall be the Lake of Sáwa, and the Holy Fire of Persia shall fail, no more for Saṭíḥ shall Syria avail! Yet to the number of the turrets* your kings and queens shall reign, and their empire retain, though that which is to come cometh amain!”

These tales of portent and presage must, however, be regarded rather as pious after-thoughts than as historical facts. The birth of the Arabian Prophet, like many another momentous event, was announced, we may be sure, by no such blare of celestial trumpets, and did not for a moment occupy the attention even of the men of Mecca, for whom the “Year of the Elephant” afforded ample food for thought and anxiety.

In the early part of the sixth century the political position of the Arabs was as follows. In the west the kingdom of Ghassán and in the east the kingdom of Ḥíra acknow- Political rela­tions of the Arabs in the sixth century. ledged more or less the suzerainty of Byzan­tium and Persia respectively. The bulk of the Arabs of Central Arabia, secure in their deserts and broken up into numerous more or less hostile tribes, fought and sang and robbed and raided much as do the Bedouin of to-day, with little regard for the neighbouring states. In the south the rich and ancient kingdom of Yaman enjoyed, under its own Tubba's or kings, a larger measure of wealth, prosperity, and civilisation. The infamous usurper Lakhí'a, called Dhú Shanátir, met his well-merited doom at the hands of the young prince Dhú Nuwás, who—for since the days of Bilqís Queen of Sheba regicide seems to have been regarded in South Arabia as the best title to the Crown—was by accla­mation elected king, the last king, as it proved in the event, of the old Ḥimyarite stock.

Now Dhú Nuwás elected to turn Jew, and with the zeal of a proselyte, proceeded to persecute the Christians of Nejrán, Dhú Nuwás and the persecution of the Christians of Nejrán. whom, on their refusal to embrace Judaism, he slew with the sword, burned and roasted in pits dug for the purpose, and barbarously tortured in other ways. To this event allusion is made in súra lxxxv of the Qur'án: “Death upon the People of the Pits, “The People of the Pits.” of the Burning Fire, when they sat over them, watch­ing what they did to the believers, against whom they had no complaint save that they believed in God, the Mighty, the Praiseworthy!”

That, as stated by Ṭabarí, 20,000 Christians perished in this persecution (A.D. 523) is, of course, incredible, the actual number of victims being probably not much more than a hundredth part of this; but the news, brought by one of the fugitives, was horrible enough to stir the wrath of the Abyssinian Abyssinian conquest of Yemen. Christians, and to induce their ruler, the Nejáshí or NĖgúsh, to send an army to avenge his co-religionists. This army, commanded by Aryáṭ and Abraha, utterly defeated the Yamanites, and Dhú Nuwás, perceiving that all was lost, spurred his horse into the sea, and disappeared for ever from mortal ken. To this event the Ḥimyarite poet Dhú Jadan refers in the following verses:—

“Gently! Can tears recall the things that are spent and sped?
Fret thyself not with weeping for those who are lost and dead!
After Baynún,* whereof nor stones nor traces remain,
And after Silḥín, shall man ere build such houses again?”

And again:—

“Leave me, accursed shrew! For what can avail thy cries?

Plague on thee! Peace! In my throat thy scolding the spittle dries!
To the music of cithers and singers in bygone days 'twas fine
When we drank our fill and revelled in royallest, ruddiest wine!
To drain the sparkling wine-cup I deem it, indeed, no shame,
When it brings no act that a comrade and boon-companion can blame;
For Death is by no man cheated, the grave is the share of each,
Though protection he seek of the perfumes and potions and drugs of
the leech!
The monk in his cloistered dwelling, which rears its fanes as high
As the nest of the hawk and eagle, in vain would death deny.
Thou hast heard, for sure, of Ghumdán,* the house with the lofty roof,
Which they built on a mountain-summit, from meaner dwellings aloof;
Crowned with the joiner's labour, with square-hewn stones for stay,
Plastered without and within with clean, tough, slippery clay.
With burden of dates half-ripened already the palm-trees seemed
Ready to break, while the oil-lamps like summer lightning gleamed.
Yet is this once-new Castle a pile of ashes to-day,
And the lambent flames have eaten its beauty and form away.
For Abú Nuwás, despairing, hath hastened to meet his death,
Foretelling their pending troubles to his folk with his latest breath!”

Aryáṭ, the Abyssinian conqueror of Yaman, did not, how­ever, long survive to enjoy the fruits of victory, for he was Aryáṭ killed by Abraha. treacherously slain in a duel by his ambitious lieu­tenant, Abraha, who, however, emerged from the combat with a wound across his face which earned for him the nickname of al-Ashram, “the split-nosed.”

Now it pleased Abraha to build at Ṣan'á, the capital of Yaman, a great and splendid church, whereby he hoped to Abraha's expe­dition against Mecca. divert the stream of Arab pilgrims away from the Square Temple of Mecca. But the Arabs murmured at his endeavour, and one of them, a soothsayer of the tribe of Fuqaym, entered the church by stealth and defiled it. Then Abraha was filled with wrath, swore to destroy the Temple of Mecca, and set out to execute his threat with his elephants of war and a vast host of Abys­sinians.

While Abraha lay encamped at Mughammas, hard by the city of Mecca, he was visited by 'Abdu'l-Muṭṭalib, the grand- 'Abdu'l-Muṭṭalib and his camels. father of the Prophet Muḥammad, who was one of the principal men of the Quraysh, that noble tribe to whom was specially entrusted the care of the Sanctuary. And Abraha, being well pleased with his manners and address, bade him through his interpreter crave a boon. “I desire,” replied 'Abdu'l-Muṭṭalib, “that the King should restore to me two hundred camels which have been taken from me.” “Thou speakest to me,” answered Abraha in aston­ishment, “of two hundred camels which I have taken from thee, yet sayest naught of a Temple which is the Sanctuary of thee and thy fathers, and which I am come to destroy!” 'Abdu'l-Muṭṭalib's rejoinder is characteristically Arabian. “I am the master of the camels,” said he, “but the Temple has its own Master, who will take care of it;” and, on Abraha's remarking, “He cannot protect it against me!” he added, “That remains to be seen; only give me back my camels!”